GOOD ROADS 


Good roads are avenues of progress, the best proof of intelligence; they aid the 
social and religious advancement of the people; they increase the value of products; 
they save time, labor, and money; they are the initial sources of commerce, which 
swell in great streams and flow everywhere, distributing the products of our fields, 
forests, and factories. The highways are the common property of the country, their 
benefits are shared by all, and they are needed by all; they benefit all, and all should 
contribute to them. 











SPEECH 


OF 


HON. JOHN H. BANKHEAD 


OF ALABAMA 


IN THE 
SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 


FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1908 


WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 


1908 
49857—7912 


Southern Pamph: 
Rare Book Collec 
UNG-Chanel Uj 





SPEECH 


OF 


HON. JOHN H. BANKHEAD. 


RURAL DELIVERY ROUTES. 


Mr. BANKHEAD, Mr. President, I ask to have read the amendment which I 
offered to the post-office appropriation bill. 

The VICE-PRESIDENT. Without objection, the Secretary will read the amend- 
ment submitted by the Senator from Alabama. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

Amendment intended to be proposed by Mr. BANKHEAD to the bill (H. R. 18347) making 
appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department for the fiscal year ending 
fect 30, 1909, and for other purposes, viz: At the end of line 14, page 27, insert the 
ollowing : 

“Provided further, That a sum not to exceed $500,000 of this appropriation may be 
expended by the Postmaster-General, in cooperation with the Secretary of Agriculture, 
in improving the conditions of the roads over which rural delivery routes are, or may be, 
hereafter established, to be selected by them for the purpose of ascertaining the possible 
increase in the territory which could be served by one carrier, and the possible increase 
of the number of delivery days each year, the amount required for proper maintenance 
in excess of local expenditure for rural delivery routes, and the relative saving to the 
Government in the maintenance of rural delivery routes by reason of such improvements: 
Provided further, That the State or county, or counties, which may be selected for im- 
provement of rural delivery routes therein under this provision shall furnish an equal 
amount of money for the improvement of the rural route so selected.’’ 


Mr. BANKHEAD. Mr. President, the question that I am about to discuss 
is not a new one. The speedy delivery of the mails and the transportation 
and distribution of production has claimed the attention of out most enlight- 
ened and constructive statesmen since the organization of the Government. 
The transportation and distribution of products is of more importance than 
production itself. It is the surplus which we sell that makes us richer, adds 
to the bank accounts, and cancels the mortgage. What the producer con- 
sumes at home adds nothing to our wealth. It is that which he sells and trans- 
ports to the market that makes him rich. If the cost of transportation to the 
producer is equal to the difference between the cost of production and the selling 
price there.is no profit. Indeed, he is poorer, because his land is being exhausted, 
his team and his wagon wearing out, the deposits of his mine are being re- 
moved, his timber is being consumed, and his manufacturing plant is under- 
going wear and tear, all without net results. In all classes of agriculture 
and in all lines of manufacturing and trade economy of transportation is an 
important item in the amount of profit. There are three methods for the 
transportation of commerce—the railroads, waterways, and the common 
highways or dirt roads. I need not discuss the first method. It has been 
the subject of extensive discussion, legislation and judicial construction, with 
which we are all familiar. Transportation by water has been liberally pro- 
vided for by Congress. The dirt roads, over which 90 per cent of the internal 
commerce of the country must be moved first or last, have been sadly neglected. 

The time has arrived when Congress must meet the great question of national 
road improvement fairly and squarely and give it that thoughtful and serious 
consideration which it deserves. The farmers are being aroused, and already 
the National Grange, with a membership of more than a million farmers, 
is calling upon us for action in this matter. Another great organization, the 
Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative Union of America, is urging legisla- 
tion in the same direction. Mr. President, the hordes of southern EHurope 
and the menace of alien races may cast their sinister shadows over our great 
cities, but, sir, that great, silent, patient element of our population, the Amer- 


49857—7912 3 


987558 


“i 


ican farmer, is American through and through. The very citadel of American 
liberty and its most cherished traditions are guarded by the farmers, who 
are 91 per cent native born and constitute more than one-third of our popu- 
lation. 

These men have contributed to the wealth of the United States to an extent 
which staggers the imagination. The corn crop of 1907 alone was worth 
$1,350,000,000 ; the hay crop was worth $660,000,000 ; the cotton crop was worth 
$675,000,000, and the wheat crop was worth over $500,000,000. Mr. President, 
it will be observed that either one of these great agricultural crops has produced 
more actual wealth in one year than the combined output of all the gold and 
silver mines in the world and $100,000,000 more. The grand total of all crops 
for 1907 was nearly seven and one-half billion dollars, and it is estimated that 
the farmers of this country have created during the last nine years $53,000,- 
000,000 worth of wealth. The value of agricultural crops exported in 1906 
was $969,457,306, or 564 per cent of the total exports, and but for the export of 
agricultural products the balance of trade would have been against the United 
States by $523,127,533. When the machinations of Wall street, the dangerous 
practices of high finance, and the injustice of our tariff system bring upon us 
the woes of financial stringency, industrial depression, and hard times, we must 
realize that the tillers of the soil form the real basis of our wealth, and that to 
the creation of real wealth we should lend our aid. 

But it is not only the rural population that demands aid from the Government 
in the upbuilding of our public roads. The numerous resolutions of the boards 
of trade, chambers of commerce, associations of manufacturers, and the open 
advocacy of many of our great railroad companies, indicate clearly that it only 
needs an organization of all these forces to bring about the united and effective © 
efforts of city and country. Modern inventive genius is responsible for a new 
factor in the problem of transportation, which must be reckoned with in legis- 
lating for public roads. The automobile industry has now reached $110,000,000 
per annum, and the makers and users of automobiles will soon find a plane upon 
which they can mutually press forward with the farmer in his efforts to obtain 
better roads. The time will come, during the lifetime of Senators who do me 
the honor to listen, when the traction engine and the automobile will be utilized 
on the improved dirt road in hauling to the market farm and forest products 
at a minimum cost, supplying the place of millions of horses and mules now 
employed in transportation. 

Mr. President, it is sufficient to call attention to resolutions passed by the 
legislatures of Maine, Tennessee, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Alabama, New 
York, and other States, with reference to national aid, to show how widespread — 
is the sentiment among our State legislatures upon this subject. When all 
these powers and factors unite their efforts there will be such an era of in- 
ternal improvement, of home building, of home beautifying, of wealth creation, 
that the waste places will be filled, squalid huts will give place to beautiful 
homes, the desert will blossom as the rose, and all the shocks and crashes of 
frenzied finance will fall harmless from the bulwarks of our splendid prosperity. ° 

The objection is made that such legislation would be unconstitutional. For- 
‘tunately, for our guidance, the question of national aid is not a new one. We 
have the precedent of national-aid legislation by Congress while the founders 
of our Government lived to know and approve of it. The first appropriation 
made was in 1806, when $30,000 was set aside for the purpose of commencing 
work on the famous old Cumberland road. These appropriations then con- 
tinued, with but little interruption, until May 25, 1888, when the last appro- 
priation of $150,000 was made, which made the total amount expended on 
road construction during this period about $7,000,000. 


i March 14, 1818, the House of Representatives passed the following res- 
olution: 


Resolved, That Congress has power under the Constitution. to appropriate money for 


the construction of post-roads, military and other roads 
; X s \ and of canals a 
improvement of waterways. : ; Bea ge eis 


Mr. President, what was the attitude of the leading statesmen in the early 


bene of the Republic? Thomas Jefferson said, in a letter to Mr. Lieper, in 


Give us’ peace till our revenues are liberated from debt, and then, i 
; G , ‘ , if war be necessar 
ees ieee oy! a aes tae a loan, and during peace we may checker ae 
7 vi canals, roads, ete. his i j i bv 
eee cae eae is the object to which all our endeavors 


49857—7912 


O 


James Madison, in a message to Congress, said: 


I particularly invite the attention of Congress to the expediency of exercising their 
existing powers, and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging 
them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals, such as will 
have the effect of drawing more closely together every part of our country, by promoting 
intercourse and improvements and by increasing the share of every part in the common 
stock of national prosperity. 


Henry Clay advocated the building of national roads in a speech made in 
Congress in 1818, in which he said: 

Of all the modes in which a Government can employ its surplus revenue, none is more 
permanently beneficial than that of internal improvement. Fixed to the soil, it becomes 
a durable part of the land itself, diffusing comfort and activity and animation on all 
sides. The first direct effect is on the agricultural community, into whose pockets comes 
the difference in the expense of transportation between good and bad ways. Thus if the 


price of transporting a barrel of flour by the erection of the Cumberland turnpike should 
be lessened $2, the producer of the article would receive that $2 more now than formerly. 


Daniel Webster, speaking in the United States Senate in 1830, used the follow- 
ing language: 

Under this view of things I thought it necessary to settle, at least for myself, some 
definite notions with respect to the powers of the Government in regard to internal 
affairs, and I arrived at the conclusion that Government had power to accomplish sundry 
objects or aid in their accomplishment, which are now commonly spoken of as internal 
improvement, 


While it is true that Presidents Madison, Jackson, and Monroe vetoed acts of 
Congress relating to public roads, it is beyond dispute that the veto of President 
Monroe was due to a provision giving to the General Government the right of 
eminent domain and of general superintendence, and this is practically true of 
the other veto messages. President Jackson held that the right of appropriation 
was not limited by the specified powers of the Constitution. In his veto mes- 
sage he said: 

I have not been able to consider these declarations in any other point of view than as 
a concession that the rights of the appropriation is not limited by the power to carry 
into effect the measure for which the money is asked, as was formerly contended. 

On May 4, 1802, President Monroe, in a veto message to Congress, used the 
following language: 


That in whatever sense the term established is applied to post-offices it must be applied 
in the same sense to post-roads. 


John C, Calhoun was a staunch advocate of the doctrine of State rights, and 
believed in a strict construction of the Constitution, but he was equally as pro- 
nounced in his belief that the Federal Government should take a hand in build- 
ing and improving our common highways, rivers, and canals. In 1817 he 
introduced a bill in Congress to provide a fund for the construction of roads 
and canals, and, in support of this bill, he spoke in part, as follows: 

Let it not be said that internal improvements may be wholly left to the enterprise of 
the State and of individuals. I know that much may justly be expected to be done by 
them; but in a country so new and so extensive as ours, there is room enough for all 
the General and State Governments and individuals to exert their resources. Many of 
the improvements contemplated are on too great a scale for the resources of States or 
of individuals, and many of such a nature that the rival jealousy of the State, if left 
alone, might prevent. They require the resources and general superintendence of the 
Government to effect and complete them. : Z 

But there are higher and more powerful coasiderations why Congress should take 
charge of this subject. If we were only to consider the pecuniary advantages of a good 
system of roads and canals it might indeed admit of some doubt whether they ought not 
to be left alone wholly to individual exertion, but when we come to consider how inti- 
mately the strength and political prosperity of the Republic are connected with this 
subject, we find the most urgent reasons why we should apply our resources to them. 
Good roads and canals, judiciously laid out, are the proper remedy. Let us, then, bind 
the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. 


While Secretary of War in 1819 Mr. Calhoun made a report to the House 
of Representatives on roads and canals, in which he said: 

No object of the kind is more important and there is none to which State or individual 
capacity is more inadequate. It must be perfected by the General Government or not 
perfected at all. 

It is not necessary for the exercise of a power by the Federal Government that 
it should be expressly granted in the Federal Constitution, or that it should be 
“clearly and directly traceable to some one of the specified powers « granted. 
Any number of powers granted, or all of them, may be combined and considered 
together, and any power necessary to carry out the general purposes of any, 

49857—7912 


6 


or all, of the power specified, will be considered granted by implication, and as 
an incidental means of executing the powers specifically granted. (Pennsyl- 
vania v. Wheeling Bridge Company, 18 Howard (U. 8.), 421.) 

The Constitution, article 1, section 8, clause 1, provides, in part, that— 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, 


to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United 
States. 


An appropriation of money for the improvement of. the public roads of the 
country would certainly be for the general welfare of the United States, and it 
would seem that the Congress is clothed with ample authority, under this clause 
of the Constitution, to appropriate money for that purpose. 

In addition to this, Congress has a stronger and more specific warrant for 
making this appropriation, under the authority conferred by the Constitution 
“to establish post-offices and post-roads.”’ Cooley, in his book on Constitu- 
tional Law, says: 

Every road within. a State, including railroads, canals, turnpikes, and navigable 
streams, existing or created within a State, becomes a post-road, whenever, by the action 
of the he tea Department, provision is made for the transportation of the mails upon 
OY OVELCLE. 

This provision of the Constitution is growing every year in practical impor- 
tance and in its relation to the public roads, owing to the extension of the rural 
delivery service. 

On August 1, 1882, President Arthur vetoed a bill making an appropriation 
for rivers and harbors; but the commercial interests of the country, through 
organizations of boards of trade, chambers of commerce, and other business 
associations, had brought such pressure to bear upon Congress that sentiment 
was developed in favor of reviving appropriations for rivers and harbors, and 
this bill was promptly passed over the President’s veto. 

From that time on Executive favor and all constitutional argument se>m to 
have yielded in favor of appropriations for river and harbor improvements; but, 
by a sort of passive acquiescence, it seems to have gone against public roads and 
highways; and yet the arguments accompanying each of the veto messages, from 
President Monroe to President Arthur, admitted that the principle of appropri- 
ating money for roads and rivers and harbors was the same, and the same argu- 
ments were urged against each. If, then, appropriations for improving our 
rivers and harbors, involving the same principle as appropriations for improv- 
ing our roads, is constitutional, why will not an appropriation for roads be 
constitutional? What valid constitutional objection is there to the one which 
does not lie against the other? 

Post-roads and public highways are highways of commerce, aS much so as 
are railroads or rivers and harbors. They are the small arteries of our com- 
mercial body, which extend out into the country and gather up and bring 
to the market, railroad station, and wharf the great volume of the raw products 
of the country, which are the real constituent elements of our commerce. They 
are equally indispensable to our commercial growth and welfare, and are 
equally deserving of the fostering care of our Government. 

It is argued by many that the question of road improvement should be left 
entirely to the people of the States. It is argued that l'ederal aid savors too 
much of paternalism, and therefore the General Government should leave it 
alone; but this objection is irrational and without foundation. It is not pro- 
posed to appropriate money out of the National Treasury to aid the people in 
their private business. It proposes to appropriate public funds for a public 
purpose, which is not paternalism. Before any State can secure its share, or 
any portion of its share, of the money appropriated under the Federal aid 
proposition, it must first show an equivalent amount of self-help and invite the 
cooperation of the Government. This will be a direct stimulus to the States 
to put forth their very best efforts. Federal aid, therefore, instead of stifling 
and causing a relaxation of the efforts of the people of the States, places a 
premium upon their efforts. 

If the Government should undertake to furnish us, without cost or individual 
effort, the necessaries of life, that would be paternalism. If we were asking 
the Federal Government to prescribe our daily bread, or to provide us raiment 
to clothe our bodies, that would be paternalism pure and simple. Such a 
function of the Government would be enervating; it would destroy individ- 
uality and repress all energy and ambition; but we ask no such fatherly care 


at the hands of our Government. We only ask that it contribute a portion of 
49857—7912 


7 


the cost of improving our public roads, and, in making this contribution, it 
will, so far from committing an unwholesome act of generosity, open up new 
and improved channels to the marts of trade and commerce, stimulate indus- 
trial enterprise, inspire every citizen of the rural districts with a brighter hope 
and a higher ambition, and add a new tie to bind him with increased loyalty 
and patriotism to his country. : | 

Congress has been exceedingly generous in its appropriations for Cuba, Porto 
Itico, and the Philippines. It has spent large sums in these island territories 
for internal improvements, and much of it has been expended on the construc- 
tion and improvement of the public roads. These appropriations were made to 
an alien people who add but a meager contribution to our national revenues, have 
but little more than humanitarian claim upon our Government, and have shown 
no thrift, no spirit of progressiveness, and-no industrial enterprise or aptitude. 

These appropriations, it would seem, have found a sanction under our Consti- 
tution and general public policy. If so, then what valid objection can be inter- 
posed to appropriating money for a similar purpose to our own people. Our 
own people deserve the first consideration at our hands. They have demon- 
strated to the world their superior thrift, energy, industry, and enterprise. It 
is from them that we derive our national greatness and our national revenues, 
and they have a right to expect to be first considered and to receive even- 
handed justice from our Government of its benevolence and the distribution of 
its revenues. 

Another reason for national aid is to be found in the fact that nearly all of 
the great appropriations made by Congress are for projects that do not benefit 
the rural districts. The shipping interests have had the rivers and harbors im- 
proved to expedite their business; the cities have been supplied, at a cost of 
€300,000,000, with post-offices and custom-houses; the railroads have received 
large appropriations, and have made use of the credit of the Government; 
millions collected from the people have been loaned to the banks without inter- 
est, and iron masters have depended upon the Government to construct great 
locks and dams for facilitating the assembling of materials at cheap rates for 
making iron. The tariff laws have been shaped to benefit the manufacturers, 
but none of them are intended to benefit the great American farmer. Some of 
our ablest statesmen, and many of those most solicitous of the public welfare, 
often oppose measures which ultimately prove the greatest boon to the people. 
On the other hand, it has frequently happened that Congress, in its zeal to 
extend the blessings of our Government to the greatest number, has given its 
sanction to projects which savor more or less of futile experimentation. Con- 
gress, however, and I might say wisely so, has been slow to stamp its approval 
upon such legislative projects, but after they have once been inaugurated, and 
have met with popular favor, and proved a benefit to the people, it has been 
equally slow to take any step which would cripple their action or retard their 
development. 

Mr. President, let us now consider the rural free-delivery system, which is so 
intimately connected with roads. What has been the history of this service? 
The friends of this measure were a long time gaining the ear of Congress, and 
the question was agitated many years before it received legislative approval. 
It was regarded by many as an impractical theory, an iridescent dream, so, to 
give it a trial, Congress, in 1897, appropriated the sum of $40,000, only $10,000 
of which was used the first year. This appropriation met with such popular 
favor, and there was such a demand for rural delivery, that it was not only - 
renewed, but increased by 25 per cent in 1898. The appropriation of 1898 was 
increased by 200 per cent for 1899, and an equal rate of increase has continued 
for each of the eleven years the service has been in operation. During these 
eleven years they have increased in the aggregate from $40,000, in 1897, to 
$34,985,000, in 1907. It is stated in the last annual report of the Fourth Assist- 
ant Postmaster-General that on June 30, 1907, here were 87,728 rural delivery 
routes in operation, the average, or standard, route being 24 miles. The 
carriers on the 37,728 routes traveled daily over 901,068 miles of the roads of 
the country, which is nearly half of the total mileage of the public roads of the 
United States. Every road over which these mails go is a United States post- 
road, and, under the Constitution, Congress has authority, and in equity and 
justice should contribute to their improvement and maintenance. While the 
extension of this service has been marvelous, it has yet encountered no serious 
obstacle. It has been confined to communities blessed with good roads. Such 

communities, however, have been very largely supplied, and the future exten- 


49857—7912 


8 


sion of the service must needs be mostly to communities not having good roads, 
The Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General, in his annual report for June 30, 
1907, to which I have already referred, has this to say with reference to the 
bearing of good roads on rural delivery : 

The maintenance of good roads not only insures an early and more expeditious delivery 
to the patrons residing on that portion of the route last to be served, and from whom 
most complaints come, but lessens the liability of irregular or suspended service on any 
part thereof. 

It was estimated that the carrier who travels a 24-mile route daily, over bad 
roads, could, with much more ease, travel from 10 to 15 miles additional over 
good roads. But suppose we take a more restricted estimate and say that the 
average carrier could travel 6 miles more if we had good roads. This would 
increase the average or standard route to 380 miles, and would eliminate every 
fifth carrier now employed, and would also abolish all the crossroads post- 
offices, both of which would be a direct saving to the Government. By increas- 
ing the average or standard route to 30 miles, and eliminating every fifth 
carier, we would reduce the force of cariers by 7,516, which at their salary 
of $900 per year would be a direct annual saving of $6,764,400, to say nothing 
of the abolition of the numerous star routes and local post-offices, thereby say- 
ing to the Government many more millions. It is necessary for the continued 
growth of this service that something be done toward improving our roads. We 
can not permit it to be checkmated in its growth. No service rendered by the 
Government is dearer to the hearts of the whole American people than the free- 
delivery mail service in our cities and in the rural districts. Our people want 
this service continued and extended. We want to see rural delivery reach its 
highest degree of efficiency, so as to add to the charms of our country life. 
We want it so improved and extended that it will reach out into the remotest 
corners of our country. 

The Government sends its mails over 925,248 miles of dirt roads every day 

in the week. The rural-delivery service would extend over 2,000,000 miles if 
the roads were improved. As pointed out in the recent report of the Fourth 
Assistant Postmaster-General, its efficiency and perfection depends upon the 
system of roads over which the carrier is required to go. No class of men in the 
Government service performs more arduous duties and are more poorly paid. 
They are required to drive their team and wagon over miserably poor, muddy, 
and oftentimes almost impassable roads, through all kinds of inclement weather, 
they are required to furnish their own team and equipment and to make an 
average of 24 miles daily, for which they are paid only $900 a year. An in- 
vestigation made by the Post-Office Department, about eighteen months ago, 
shows a moderate estimate of the original cost of horses and vehicles to be 
about $275, and that an average cost of maintaining an outfit was about $250, 
making the average annual cost of a carrier’s outfit from $300 to $350. They 
carry with them a traveling fourth-class post-office, so to speak; they sell 
Stamps, register letters and packages, receive money orders, and, in a measure, 
perform all the duties of a postmaster. I believe when we come to increase the 
Salaries of Government employees, these should be among the first to recetve our 
consideration. Why should they not be as well paid as the city carrier, who 
goes over paved streets, and is not required to supply any team or vehicle? I 
have introduced an amendment to the pending Post-Office bill, increasing their 
Salary to $1,000 per year, with thirty days’ leave of absence, which I think 
should pass. 
: Mr. President, the Government has been generous in its donations to railroads 
in and through many States. There have been patented to the railroads 
44,464,719 acres of public lands. Grants to railroads of a much larger number 
of acres have been forfeited. The Government has in this way aided in the 
construction of 14,930 miles of railroads, and the bonds of railroads, amounting 
to $64,623,512, have been guaranteed, both principal and interest. 

The Government has from time to time donated for wagon roads 2,014,084 
acres of public lands; for canals, 4,500,724 acres, and for river improvement 
1,980,593 acres; in all, 53,055,121 acres. The Government has, in cooperation 
with the States on the lower Mississippi River, appropriated $16,500,000 to aid 
in the construction of levees and to prevent overflows and the destruction of life 
and property. No well-informed person would say that the building of levees on 
the Mississippi River is to improve navigation. 
an ee A eee pel Senator to suppose for one moment that I do not heartily 

ppropriations. They have my full sanction. I believe they 


Ne sel ac and prompted by the most enlightened and constructive Statesmanship. 
57—7912 


1 


e 


These benefits, to a degree, have been local in their application. What I 
am insisting upon is a continuation of this wise and beneficial legislation in 
such a way as to extend its benefits to all the people in every section of our 
eountry. 

Mr. President, upon the rural population has fallen the entire cost and 
responsibility of constructing and maintaining our public roads. It is only to 
a limited extent, and locally, that there has been legislation which at the 
present day in any way shifts this burden, and it still rests upon the people 
of the rural districts. This is inequitable, undemocratic, and in direct viola- 
tion of the express principles upon which we boast our Government was 
founded. . 

No country has good roads, except where the general government has shared 
in the cost and responsibility of creating and maintaining them. All the coun- 
tries of Europe which have improved roads have a national system whereby 
the national government shares in the cost and assists in the supervision of 
building and maintaining them. 

Our present system of road administration is largely modeled after that 
abandoned by other progressive nations more than a century ago. In Hngland 
road administration began, like our present system, with the smallest unit of 
government, which originated by an act of Parliament in.1555 and provided 
for the election of a road surveyor for each parish and for the working of the 
roads by compulsory labor. The parish was found to be too small as an 
administrative unit. A history of highways, appearing in the Edinburgh 
Review, January-April, 1864, contains this statement: 

Irom the days of Hlizabeth the inconveniences resulting from the maintenance of 
highways by single parishes have been constantly apparent, and accordingly successive 
governments, without distinction of politics, made the attempt to combine parishes into 
highway districts and to transfer the superintendence of their roads to boards employing 
the services of professional engineers. 

The decided trend of road administration in England has continued away 
from localization. Subject to the formation of road districts, it was provided 
that one-half of the expense of maintaining the roads should be borne by the 
county, and, finally, in 1882, Parliament provided that one-fifth of the expense 
of the county authorities should be refunded by a Parliamentary grant. This 
is also true in its essentials of the development of road administration in the 
other nations of Hurope, but with us we have continued in vogue a system of 
penurious localization. 

We can not escape responsibility for our miserable highways by contending 


that our Government is young and that we have not been a nation long enough 


to make the comparison with the nations of the Old World possible, because 
road building did not begin in France until the great Napoleon inaugurated the 
system of national highways, which is to-day giving France the most superb 
roads in all the world. England struggled with roads almost impassable until 
the latter part of the eighteenth century, when the teaching of Macadam, 
Tresauguet, and Telford began to be effective, and we may say that the present 
road system of England is attributable to the direct aid granted by Parliament. 
The advocates of national aid can have no stronger testimony in support of this 
policy than the following statement made by Commercial Agent Loomis, of 
St. Etienne, in 1891: 


The roads of France are now practically all built, and they are substantial monuments 
to Napoleonic foresight and shrewdness. The work of the engineers in the department 
of public works in France to-day is not to build new roads, except in rare instances, but 
to keep those already constructed in a state of high effigiency. There have been no im- 
portant new roads opened in France for a dozen years, and the country is so traversed 
with excellent roadways that no more lines of communication are likely to be exploited 
save in the case of military necessity. The wagon roads of France, always passable and 
reaching all centers of population, no matter how small, are the chief competitors of the 
railways, aS means of communication by water are not numerous. 

The road system of France has been of far greater value to the country as a means 
of raising the value of lands and of putting the small peasant proprietors in easy com- 
munication with their markets than have the railways. It is the opinion of well- 
informed Frenchmen who have made a practical study of economic problems that the 
superb roads of France have been one of the most steady and potent contributions to the 
material development and marvelous financial elasticity of the country. The far-reaching 
and splendidly maintained road system has distinctly favored the success of the small 
landed proprietors, and in their prosperity and the ensuing distribution of wealth lies 
the key to-the secret of the wonderful financial vitality and solid prosperity of the French 


nation. 

Our national wealth for 1907 was placed at $116,000,000,000, while that of 
France was placed at $42,000,000,000; yet we have improved only 150,000 
miles of our public roads, while France has improved 340,554 miles. 

49857—7912 ; 


10 


Is this condition of our public roads an enviable reputation for this great 
country? After laying claim to superiority over all other nations along almost 
all other lines of development should we be content to drop to the bottom of 
the list in road improvement? Can we, at the peril of our commercial interests, 
afford it? Can we, at the sacrifice of the general well-being and comfort of 
the great body of our rural population, tolerate it? 

Some of the opponents of this proposition would lead us to believe that th 
macadamizing of all the 2,151,000 miles of roads in the United States would 
bankrupt the Government. It would be just as absurd to macadamize all the 
roads in the United States as it would be to build a railroad or dig a canal 
through every man’s farm. It is well known among highway engineers that 
a horse can, for a short time, exert about four times his average tractive force 
without injury. By reason of this fact a team of horses can draw for 2 or 
3 miles aS much on a common earth road as they can draw all day on good 
macadam, gravel, or sand-clay roads. 

It should be apparent to any rational being that this 2,000,000 miles of public. 
road would be classified according to the traffic and the requirements in each 
section of country, and only the main arteries of travel would require so 
expensive a form of construction as broken-stone macadam. It would be 
entirely feasible and proper to improve many thousand miles with gravel, 
many more thousand miles by a mixture of sand and clay, and probably more 
than one-half of this great total would be adequate if maintained as first-class 
earth roads. So that it is absurd to figure on the cost of improving our public 
roads at $5,000 per mile for the entire mileage, or at $4,000, or even at $2,000. 

The burden of inadequate transportation facilities falls not alone upon the 
farmer, but upon the consumer. If it costs 25 cents per ton per mile to haul 
the products of the farm to the railroad station, the consumer must pay this 
additional cost without increasing the farmer’s profits one penny, and the 
farmer must pay an increased price for the finished product, which he obtains 
from the cities, because the same facts hold good both going and coming. 
Some years ago corn was burned as fuel in the Mississippi Valley, because it 
would not bear the cost of transportation, since the margin was insufficient. 
The railroads lost the freight and the markets the product. 

It may be argued that if the advantages to follow road improvement are 
so great, the States should take action and levy sufficient taxes to improve 
them. Some of our States have already passed road laws, providing for a 
road-tax levy on their taxable property. Such laws, however, are necessarily 
confined to the wealthier States, whose taxable property iS sufficient to raise 
the large sum from a small levy. All of our States are not able to levy such 
a tax. For instance, a tax of 1 mill, levied by the State of Pennsylvania, 
would raise more money than a tax of 100 mills levied by the State of Nevada. 
So it is not from a lack of interest in good roads, nor from a want of pro- 
gressiveness, that all of our States have not passed highway laws, but it is 
because the taxable property of most States is so small that to raise a sufficient 
amount of money for practical results would require an exorbitant rate of 
taxation. 

Furthermore, to undertake by State taxation to raise all the money neces- 
Sary to build and improve our roads will continue the burden upon those 
upon whom it has so long rested. The State revenues are raised by direct 
taxation, and the levy is upon visible property. The farmer’s property is 
all visible, and, therefore, never escapes taxation; while a large per cent of 
the property of the people of the cities is represented by stocks and bonds, 
is easily removable from place to place, or concealed, and is rarely ever sub- 
jected to taxation. The farmers have thus always been forced to bear a dispro- 
portionate share of the burden of taxation, which is an injustice which should. 
be relieved against. 

Mr. President, of all the civilized countries on earth, this country has the 
poorest roads. In all else that is progressive it stands first. In material 
wealth, in varied resources, in the products of agriculture, in the making of 
iron and steel, in the number of miles of railroad, in the wealth and opulence 
of its cities, we stand first, and yet the farmers, who largely contribute to this 
wealth and greatness, have had less done for them than any other Class of our 
people. Good roads are avenues of progress, the best proof of intelligence; they 
aid the social and religious advancement of the people; they increase the value 


of oe they save time, labor, and money; they are the initial sources of 
9857—7912 : 


11 


commerce, which swell in great streams and flow everywhere, distributing the 
products of our fields, forests, and factories. The highways are the common 
property of the country ; their benefits are shared by all, and they are needed by 
all; they benefit all, and all should contribute to them. What fair-minded man 
will say that the people who live on the public roads should be required to build 
and keep them in repair for the use of the general public?) They could not.if 
they were willing. The burden is more than they could bear. No Government 
on earth has ever enjoyed good roads where compulsory labor is relied on to 
build and maintain them, 

The effects of good roads reach everybody. Both city and country share in 
their benefits. In justice and equity, therefore, everybody should contribute 
to the cost of their construction and maintenance, but an equal distribution of 
this cost can not be secured under State laws and methods of taxation. Our 
national revenues are raised largely from duties, paid on consumption, and 
are thus more equally distributed among the people. Hence, an appropriation 
of money from the Federal Treasury to build and improve our roads would 
force every consumer to bear a proportion of the cost. It is not asked that the 
Government bear the whole cost, but only a part of it; and this is the only 
method whereby we may hope to secure a national system of improved roads, 
with an equitable distribution of their cost among those sharing in their benefits 
and blessings. 

What are the savings to be effected by good roads? Investigations conducted 
by the United States Office of Public Roads and by various State commissions 
have established that the average cost of hauling over wagon roads in this 
eountry is 25 cents per ton per mile, and that the average haul is over 8 miles. 
The cost of hauling in Europe has, in many cases, been reduced to as low as 7 
cents per ton per mile, and it has been established that good roads will reduce 
the cost to the farmers to as low as 10 cents per mile in this country. ‘This 
means a reduction by half of the annual cost of transportation to the farmers. 
It is only necessary to consider the fact that the immense tonnage of farm prod- 
ucts is hauled over the common roads to the railroad stations to realize what 
a tremendous saving is possible when we reduce the cost of transportation 
even 12% cents per ton per mile. The importance of this saving is all the more 
evident when we compare the cost of hauling on wagon roads with the cost of 
rail and water transportation. 

In 1906 the average freight rate by rail was a little over seven one-thousandths 
of a-eent per ton per mile. For the same year the mean ocean freight rate on 
wheat, corn, and rye from New York to Liverpool, a distance of 3,100 miles, 
was a little more than $1 per ton, or three ten-thousandths of a cent per ton per 
mile. Thus we see that railroad and water transportation rates have been 
continually reduced, until they have reached a marvelously low figure, while 
the cost of transportation over our common roads has remained practically un- 
changed for more than a generation, and will continue so until we can inaugu- 
rate some national system of improving our roads. 

This duty devolves upon our National Government. It has abundant surplus 
in the Treasury to accomplish this purpose, and how better could this surplus 
be used? It has money, and can afford it; while the States and the people have 
not the money, and can not afford it. Why allow our national revenues to lie 
idle in the banks when they might be stimulating our internal improvement and 
giving employment to thousands of the unemployed? 

Mr. President, the amendment I have offered does not increase the amount of 
the appropriation made in the post-office bill. It merely proposes to divert from 
the sum appropriated for the rural delivery service the small amount of 
$500,000, to be used as provided in the amendment. I do not undertake to lay 
down any rule, or prescribe any of the details by which the money may be ex- 
pended. It is proposed to leave that to the cooperation of the post-office and 
agricultural authorities. They were selected in order to have the benefit of the 
experiments that have been made by the good-roads divisions of the Agricultural 
Department and the experience and knowledge of the rural delivery division in 
the Post-Office Department. The methods and means of putting into operation 
the rural delivery service was left to the Postmaster-General, and so were the 
means of putting into effect and operation the irrigation system left to the 
Interior Department. 

This appropriation seeks to ascertain a practical demonstration of the effect 
of road improvement in the rural delivery service in cooperation with the States 

49857—7912 


12 


and counties, and the benefits and advantages to the service by reason of the 
improvement. I do not believe any effort as to details in the execution of this 
plan could be prescribed by law. 

A number of States, under their constitutions, are not permitted to make 
appropriations for road construction and maintenance. The State of Alabama is 
in this situation; but the last legislature, realizing thé great importance of pub- 
lic roads and the inadequacy of present methods to improve and maintain them, 
submitted an amendment to the constitution authorizing appropriations for road 
construction, which will doubtless be adopted by the people at the polls in No- 
vember. In that event, Alabama will at once be able to contribute its share, in 
cooperation with the National Government, along the lines of the amendment I 
have submitted to the pending post-office bill, in the improvement of the roads in 
every county in that State. The State of Kentucky will vote this year on a 
similar amendment to their constitution, and perhaps there are other States 
where the constitution does not permit the use of public funds for internal 
improvement. <r 

No government owes more to its people than does ours. No people in the 
world are more loyal, more patriotic, or more devoted to their government than 
our people. In time of war they have successfully defended it.against every foe, 
and in time of peace their efforts at industrial advancement and intellectual 
attainment have reared a commercial empire which excels all competitors, and a 
civilization which is unsurpassed. 

These virtues merit substantial recognition from the Government. Our people 
should receive governmental assistance in their struggles, as far as the legiti- 
mate functions of government will permit. No more urgent and acceptable aid 
can be extended than a liberal appropriation for improving our roads. ‘This 
would prove a benefit to our cities and a blessing to our rural districts. Many 
modern improvements have contributed to the amelioration of the hardships of — 
farm life, but much remains yet to be done. Good roads will add more than any 
other one thing. Give our farmers good roads, and with the telephone and 
rural delivery bringing him in easy contact with the outside world, and with his 
daily intercourse with nature, he will prove the most prosperous and contented 
and patriotic citizen on the American continent. 

Mr. President, I am making a plea for the farmers, not because they are 
better than any other class of our people, but because they are as good. They 
do not ask for special favors, but demand a square deal and fair treatment. 

The distinguished Senator from Maine [Mr. HALE], chairman of the Naval 
Committee and an active and infiuential member of the Appropriations Com- 
- mittee, declared a few days ago in this Chamber that 70 per cent of the appro- 
priations made at this session of Congress were in preparation for war or 
reparation of past wars. A most startling statement when we consider that 
the United States is at peace with all he world and no strained relations exist 
between this and any nation on the globe. 

I ask the Senate to pause long enough to consider the importance of agricul- 
ture and its wealth-producinug power, and compare the appropriations made by 
this Congress in aid of agriculture, with those made in preparation for and 
reparation of war. The appropriations for war amount to the round sum of 
$400,000,000, while for agriculture we grudgingly appropriate about $10,000,000. 
One is designed to kill and maim, make widows and orphans, and fill the land 
with sorrow and mourning; the other is to feed the hungry and clothe the 
naked, bring joy and happiness to our people, the building of peaceful homes, 
and the encouragement of patriotism and love of country. 

The toiling millions engaged in agriculture last year produced more than 
$7,000,000,000 worth of products; they fed and clothed 90,000,000 people at 
home and shipped abroad $1,000,000,000 worth of the products of their labor, or 
563 per cent of the total exports of the country. These farmers, for whose 
benefit and enccuragement Congress will this year appropriate only $10,000,000, 
as against $400,0000,000 for purposes I have just mentioned, are not receiving 
the consideration they deserve. 

The internal commerce of the country last year was about $20,000,000,0000, 
nearly all of which must first and last be hauled over the dirt roads at an 
average cost of 25 cents per ton per mile, or more than thirty times the cost 
of transportation by rail, the average rail haul being less than 7 mills per ton 
per mile. 

49857—7912 


13 


In order to show the immense burden imposed by the dirt roads I have se- 
lected five of the leading staple farm products to prove my contention—wheat, 
corn, cotton, hay, and tobacco. 


CORN CROP, 1905-6. 


PEM MPCADRLEE emit EROLOG co ccntrc on 2 to eae i i ei ee he 19, 083, 000 
uremee erm TILL LOA 5c th ee Ra rhe ah pounds__ 2, 696 
Per TenmerrOr longs Nauied 3 0 ee tee eS 14, 156, 528 
ER UIP OLT Wa Ube oe es eR eae St miles__ 7. 4 
Peweracercost. of hauling per. ton. per miles.o2- oo ee ee cents__ .19 
Poprecoorrer marketing crop by wagon... 2 ee $26, 830, 698 
Average cost over hard roads per ton per mile_______.__-_________ cents__ ; 

ITMIEMRRAMEE COMER TE LAC PODS eres Met 1 ches ene a he eet RN Se $12, 709, 278 


The railroads charged for hauling 100 pounds of corn from St. Louis to New 
Orleans, a distance of 647 miles, 16 cents. To haul 100 pounds of corn over the 
Missouri dirt roads a distance of 8.8 miles costs the farmer 10 cents. 


WHHAT CROP. 1905-6. 


RI ERE ORIN AEKCLOU 6 ncn ae ee a ee eo lee 12, 123, 000 
CIEL Ot l108 (on eos ee ee pounds__ 3, 323 
ne Trt, MOAI UAILCO 6. ee ee 7, 296, 418 
ES aS FY aR ST es 2 ea ae Ua 0 ras ER gg ed miles__ 9.4 
ewernee cost. of hauling per.ton per milec___. 22-2 eents2 a BY) 
Beemer maArkcting crop DY. wagons... ek $21, 651, 678 
Average cost over hard roads per ton per mile____________________ cents__ .10 
PE IIOMEC THEO CETORUS.so  eeS $10, 256, 058 


The railroad charge for 100 pounds of wheat from Chicago to Buffalo, a dis- 
tance of 525 miles, is 12 cents. To haul 100 pounds of wheat a distance of five 
and seven-tenths miles over the dirt roads of [llinois costs the farmer 7 cents. 


COTTON CROP, 1905-6. 


DCE re hele. gar ea oe ee ee eee 2, 530, 000 
DEE rOn (l= a ee ek pounds__ 1, 702 
erosions navled 2025 oo. lio 2 a ee te 2, 973, 560 
mverace Jeneth of jaul 8 — ~~.-___- i ao le at ee ce miles__ tS 
Peemes cod. Ol Nauline per ton per mile_.____________-____.__.__ cents__ 5 PATS 
reeeeteer i maricetine crop by wagon-—_-_-_-_-_--___ui ee $8, 062, 173 
Average cost over hard roads per ton per mile___________-_______-- cents__ ; 

Conc rCOmLOAQG 2. 2.6 oo $5, 076, 183 


To send a bale of cotton by rail from Birmingham, Ala., to Norfolk, Va., a 
distance of 763 miles, costs $2.55. To haul a bale of cotton a distance of 11 
miles over the dirt roads of Mississippi, costs 95 cents. If the railroad haul cost 
as much per mile as the dirt road, the cost of sending a bale of cotton from 
Birmingham to Norfolk would amount to $88.32, or about twice its value at the 
average price. It costs 18 cents per hundred pounds to haul cotton seed a dis- 
tance of 13 miles on a dirt road in Alabama, or one-third of its market value. 

The rail haul for tobacco from Durham, N. C., to Richmond, Va., a distance of 
161 miles, is 25 cents per hundred pounds. It costs 20 cents to haul a hundred 
pounds of tobacco over the dirt roads of Virginia for a distance of 113 miles. 

The average farm price of ‘hay, December 1, 1905, was $8.52, and the value 
of an average load in the United States at that time was $11.87. The cost of 
hauling the load to market was $2.33, or one-fifth of its value. 

The gross earnings of the railroads in 1906 were $2,082,482,406 and the 
operating expenses were $1,532,163,153. The ratio of operating expenses to 
earnings was 624 per cent. Against these earnings was charged for interest, - 
rents, betterments, taxes, and miscellaneous items the sum of $590,386,554 and 
for dividends $229,406,598, leaving a surplus of $100,000,000. These large sums 
collected from the public were returned to the people for labor and material, 
and the money is now in the channels of trade and commerce. It is estimated 
that the annual cost of hauling over the dirt roads exceeds the total gross 
income of the railroads. What has become of this enormous sum? It has not 
gone for material or labor and has paid no dividends. It is merely a tax 
collected by the roads, none of which can ever be returned to those who paid 
it. It is a contribution to the miserable roads over which the commerce of 
the country is carried. 

The cotton crop in Alabama last year was 1,200,000 bales, and the cost of 
delivering it to market was 95 cents per bale, or a total cost of $1,140,000. This 
was $540,000 more than the cost would have been over hard roads. Bad roads 
in Alabama, therefore, wrung from the pockets of the farmers in that State in 
one year on one article alone $540,000, every cent of which was an absolute 

49857—7912 


14 


loss. It is worse than loss, for they paid it in time and wear and tear of their 
wagons and teams. 

Mr. President, I ask permission of the Senate to insert in the REcoRD an- 
illustration, showing the benefit of good roads in Montgomery County, Ala. 

The Presipinc OFFiceR (Mr. Bacon in the chair). Without objection, per- 
mission is granted. 

The illustration is as follows: 


— ROADS IN 


{ 
tt 
tA 


BS " 
“Ser SO Ba 
Nid dlee td 


unig: “ 


pat paar 
fu em 
y hy 


1) 


= “Nv 








Mr. BANKHEAD. If I have established my contention that the Constitution 
does not prohibit, but expressly authorizes, Congress to appropriate money in 
aid of road construction ; if I have shown that there is no invasion of the rights 
of the States, and that the scarecrow of paternalism does not anywhere show 
its face, the only questions remaining to be settled are: Is it good govermental 
policy? Is it a good investment, and will it yield a return to the people suffi- 


cient to justify the outlay? Will it materially reduce the cost of transporting 
49857—7912 


15 


the vast internal commerce of the country? Wiil it increase the profit of the 
producer, and also benefit the consumer? If the expenditure will result in a 
Saving directly to this large number of our citizens, and, indirectly, to all our 
people, and they are willing for the Government to make the expenditure, why 
not now begin this long delayed, but beneficial legislation ? 

It is not the rural population alone that would be benefited; if so, it would 
be in the interest of a class, and this I could not approve. Those in the city are 
equally interested, and will enjoy equal benefits and results. The merchant 
exchanges his goods and wares for farm products, either by barter and purchase 
or sale. If the farmer can deliver his products at a reduced cost to himself, his 
profits are larger, he is enabled to buy more goods, and carries home with 
him more of the luxuries and necessities of life, and adds to the happiness and 
contentment of the family. 

Mr. President, the educational side of the question is sufficient to control my 
action, if no other interests were involved. A system of efficient public schools 
can never be maintained until the roads in the rural districts are improved, 
until the disgraceful cabin, now used as a schoolhouse, gives place to a more 
imposing structure, located in centers of population, over which waves the flag 
of our country, inspiring confidence and patriotism. A wide-awake, progressive 
school in every township, in a comfortable building, and provided with the neces- 
sary libraries, apparatus, and equipment, would do more than any other one 
thing to inspire confidence and respect in the hearts of our young American 
manhood and womanhood, and it then could be said of America, aS was once 
said of Rome, “All roads lead to the schoolhouse.” This Republic must depend 
for its future greatness upon an intelligent and home-loving people. The religious 
and social life of our people is largely influenced by the conditions where they 
reside. 

Good roads are the mcst potential and successful immigrating agents in this 
country. The most desirable farmers and the best wives and helpmeets are 
the young men and the young women raised on the farms. Under existing 
conditions, they are continually drifting to the towns and cities. They are 
progressive and social in their nature, and will not remain on the farm unless 
they can have those benefits and pleasures that association and companionship 
afford. The loneliness of the country home, away from neighbors and friends, 
where the schools and the churches are poorly maintained, where the farmer 
and his wife and children are denied the advantages of educational and re- 
-ligious training, are the principal causes for the removal of large numbers of 
our people from the country to the towns and cities. The farmer is seeking 
better advantages for his family, and unless the country can be made to supply, 
in some measure, these benefits, there will continue to be a congestion of 
population in the cities. 

We send a commission to Europe to investigate the question of immigraton, 
and many States maintain immigration bureaus in order to secure desirable 
farm and industrial labor. The question is often asked by the intelligent and 
thrifty immigrant, Have you good roads? The most desirable immigrant comes 
from a country where he is accustomed to good roads, and if he is located 
where the roads ars almost impassable for a great part of the year, he will 
remain no longer than to make and harvest the first crop. 

One of the problems in connection with the transportation system of the 
country, and one which has in many ways been the subject of discussion, is 
the congestion of traffic and the inability of the railroads, during certain 
periods of the year, to move promptly the products of the farm, factory, and 
mine. Great inconvenience, and oftentimes enormous losses, are sustained 
both by the producer and the consumer because of the inability of the railroads 
to deliver freight to its destination at times when it was most needed and 
commands the best prices. The railroads have not been able to expand and 
enlarge their carrying facilities in proportion to the increase in production. 
At certain periods they do not have sufficient locomotives and cars to meet the 
demands of commerce, while at other periods thousands of cars and locomo- 
tives, representing an investment of millions of dollars, stand idle. During 
the harvest season, and before the rain, snow, and freezes come which render 
the roads. in many sections of the country impassable and useless, the farmer 
is compelled to rush his products to market, which results in an overflow, de- 
preciates prices, and severely taxes the capacity of the railroads. 

It has been urged as a probable means of relief the improvement of the 
waterways of the country, which would, in a large measure, assist the railroads 

49857—7912 


16 


in moving articles ready for transportation, in addition to many other benefits, 
but it would not avoid the congestion. It would only assist in relieving it. 
An improved road system, permeating the country districts, would remove the 
principal cause, would enable the farmer and small producer to place his prod- 
ucts on the market at such times when the price is commensurate with their 
value, or when most convenient to him, and his time could not be better em- 
ployed. The American farmer is more prosperous to-day than at any time in 
his history and in a better position to dictate the price at which he will sell 
the products of his labor by withholding it from the markets. If the internal 
commerce of the country could be delivered to the railroad stations at any time 
during the year, and as the market required, the railroads could properly 
handle the entire freight of the country. If farm products must be delivered 
within a limited time, owing to the condition of the roads, the market is con- 
gested, the railroads are overtaxed, prices fall, the producer’s profit is greatly 
reduced, and the consumer is greatly inconvenienced. 

The result of road improvement, wherever tried, has been largely i increase 


the value of farm land, for the homeseeker preférs to locate where improved | 
roads provide their many advantages. Indeed, I have been assured that lands — 


have even doubled and quadrupled in value along and adjacent to improved 
dirt roads, 

Ve hear a great deal being said about the destruction of our timber supply. 
Mr. President, I do not hesitate to say that, in my opinion, there is sufficient 
timber, composed of small tracts, belonging to farmers and other landowners, 
in this country to-day, and which is now considered worthless, because of its 
distance from the railroad, that could be placed on the market were the roads 
sufficiently improved, that would supply the timber demand in the Unitéd States 
for seventy-five years, the value of which alone would improve the dirt roads of 
this country. 

Mr. President, in closing I wish to touch upon a question which I consider of 
vital importance. It is a question not so much of dollars and cents, not of con- 
stitutionality, but one which affects our morality, our character as individuals 
and as a nation, and the stability of our free institutions. Year after year the 
human tide flows from the country to the city, and the day may come when the 
words of the poet may apply to this Republic: 


Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 


Do not let us have great mobs of the unemployed, combining the scum of 
Europe with the misled boys from our American farms, so long as there are 
millions of acres of land waiting to be tilled and homes waiting to be built. 
Good roads will make farm life attractive; they will bring the isolated dweller 
closer to his neighbor, and I feel confident they will check the movement of our 
rural population to the great cities. 

49857—7912 


O 


; 


